1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a garment hanger, and more particularly pertains to a coordinate loop garment hanger having a hook receiving closed loop dependent from the bottom thereof for selectively receiving and suspending therefrom a hook of a second ganged garment hanger. The present invention also relates generally to a mold for molding a coordinate loop garment hanger and a method of molding a coordinate loop garment hanger.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
It can be appreciated that many garments are designed to be worn and sold as coordinated outfits or sets. For example, a coordinate jacket and pant set, a coordinate jacket and top set, a coordinate short and top set, and other such coordinate combinations may be specifically manufactured to be sold as sets. In the sale of such coordinate garment sets, it is desirable to display these garments together to convey to the consumer that the garments are indeed a set to be purchased together. To that end the separate garments may be hung on separate hangers and displayed alongside or next to each other, or the garments may be hung on a single hanger. The drawbacks in such display methods are that in the first example some frame or support is required to display the garments together, and in the second example sharing a hanger may obscure one of the individual garments that make up the coordinate garment set.
It can also be appreciated that a further benefit in displaying such coordinate garment sets together, or in displaying garments of a similar style and color together, is that the amount of required display space can be significantly reduced. A still further benefit of displaying such coordinate items together is to make it easier for the consumer to find and purchase such garments. This economy of space and ease of organization may also extend to the transport and storage of such garments.
Moreover, in many cases, each separate garment requires a hanger of a different type, such as a hanger suitable for displaying a blouse used with a hanger capable of supporting a skirt or a pair of slacks. For this purpose, it has long been a practice to utilize hanger structures in which two hangers are ganged together, with one being suspended from the other. In other cases, attachments have been designed with the attachment constructed to be temporarily or permanently connected to a supporting hanger. These arrangements have not been satisfactory because they have normally required the hangers to be of such a design that they do not have utility other than as ganged hangers for simultaneous multiple garment display and transport. When hangers of conventional construction have been modified to permit ganging, they have either involved a difficult and complex structure for attaching one garment hanger to the other or they have not been satisfactory in transportation because the vibration and jostling incident to transportation causes the hangers to become disconnected, allowing one of the garments to fall to the floor or the bottom of the transport container. This same lack of security of attachment has also been a problem at the point of display unless the hangers are carefully handled. It is also an important requirement that the cost of the hangers be kept as low as possible to meet the necessities of the garment manufacturing and merchandising field.
Prior art ganged garment hangers having a molded plastic body construction with an integral hook receiving element depending therefrom for suspending a second lower garment hanger are generally molded in a two piece separable mold. This method of manufacture requires that the component features of the molded garment hangers have symmetrical shapes which can be defined by the first and second halves of the two piece separable mold with no cavities therein which cannot be molded and completely defined by the two halves of the two piece separable mold.
This requirement has resulted in prior art designs for ganged garment hangers wherein the left and right elements defining the left and right halves of the hook receiving passageway of the suspension element have not been aligned with respect to each other along the direction of opening and closing of the mold, such that the left mold half can define the left side of each of the left and right side elements of the hook receiving passageway, and the right mold half can define the right side of each of the left and right side elements of the hook receiving passageway.
This requirement has resulted in prior art designs for ganged garment hangers wherein the left and right side elements defining the hook receiving passageway have been staggered or nonaligned with respect to each other along the length of the hook receiving passageway, to allow the left and right sides of each of the left and right side elements defining the hook receiving passageway to be defined and molded by the left and right mold halves.
Examples of the staggering or nonalignment of the left and right side elements defining the hook receiving passageway along the length of the hook receiving passageway are illustrated in Blanchard et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,653,678 wherein elements 21 and 22 are staggered along the length of the hook receiving passageway, and willinger et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,803,321 wherein elements 42 and 44 are staggered along the length of the passageway, and Zuckerman U.S. Design 394,753.
Moreover, the staggering or nonalignment of the left and right side elements defining the hook receiving passageway along the length of the hook receiving passageway has resulted in several disadvantages for such prior art ganged garment hangers. The strength and durability of the hook receiving element is compromised by the design, resulting in more frequently broken hook receiving elements. The designs of the hook receiving element are also more complex and less compact. Moreover, the relatively complex shapes of the left and right side molds forming the hook receiving element result in mold shapes which are not easy to manufacture and which are more subject to wear and scoring over time with continued commercial usage of the molds.
The prior art also discloses hydraulically actuated mold pieces for moving mold pieces into and out of molding positions during and after molding operations. However, such hydraulical actuators are often large and cumbersome, and would not be able to be physically positioned in a relatively small mold such as a mold for a coordinate loop garment hanger pursuant to the present invention.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a coordinate loop garment hanger having a hook receiving closed loop dependent from the bottom thereof for selectively receiving and suspending therefrom a hook of a second ganged garment hanger.
A further object of the subject invention is the provision of a mold for molding a coordinate loop garment hanger having a hook receiving closed loop dependent therefrom, and also a method for molding a coordinate loop garment hanger having a hook receiving closed loop dependent therefrom.
In accordance with the teachings herein, the present invention provides a coordinate loop garment hanger comprising a molded plastic hanger body having a hook receiving loop element depending from and molded, integrally with the molded plastic body at a lower portion thereof. The hook receiving loop element includes a passageway for selectively receiving and suspending therefrom a hook of a second garment hanger. The passageway is defined by left and right side elements along opposite sides of the length of the passageway, which is defined along the direction a hook from a dependent garment hanger is inserted into and through the passageway. Pursuant to the teachings herein, at least a portion of the left and right side elements are aligned substantially perpendicularly across from each other along the left and right sides of the length of the passageway. A hook member is joined to the molded plastic hanger body at an upper portion thereof.
In greater detail, the loop element is at least partially enclosed, and in several embodiments is completely enclosed, by left, right, top and bottom surfaces along its length, with open ends at opposite ends of its length.
In several embodiments the loop element defines a substantially rectangular shaped passageway having substantially parallel left and right sides and rounded top and bottom surfaces. The passageway is curved along its length, with the open ends of the passageway being slightly lower than the center of the passageway. The top of the passageway curves with a radius R1 along the length of the passageway, the bottom of the passageway curves with a radius R2 along the length of the passageway, and R1 greater than R2.
In several embodiments the widths of the left, right, top and bottom walls forming the loop element are all substantially equal. The external width of the loop element between its left and right outer surfaces is less than the width of a flange member on the lower portion of the plastic hanger body to which the loop element is integrally attached. The loop member is attached to the flange member by an attachment web which extends the length of the loop member and has a width substantially equal to the width of the walls of the loop element.
In one embodiment, the hook member comprises a formed metal wire hook member secured to the molded plastic hanger body at a central upper portion thereof. In an alternative embodiment, the hook member can comprise a molded plastic hook member which is integrally molded with the hanger body at a central upper portion thereof.
In a further embodiment, the hook receiving loop element also defines a second passageway centrally located along the length of the loop member and extending substantially perpendicularly to the length of the loop member, such that a second garment hanger can be suspended with its length extending substantially perpendicular to the length of the upper garment hanger.
In another embodiment, the loop element defines a stop tab projecting from one end of one side of the loop element to assist and guide the insertion and loading of a hanger hook through the loop element.
In another embodiment, a supporting flange member is positioned on the lower portion of the plastic hanger body, to which the loop element is integrally molded and attached, and support ribs are positioned on opposite ends of the loop element. The support ribs have the same width as the loop element and the flange member, and serve to further secure the loop element to the flange member.
In another embodiment, the supporting flange member is integrally molded with left and right downwardly extending support ribs which are also integrally molded with the left and right sides of the loop element. A crescent shaped aperture is formed above the loop element passageway which extends along the length thereof.
In another embodiment, one side of the loop element comprises a centrally positioned short length side element, and the second side of the loop element comprises a centrally positioned longer length side element, which assists and guides the insertion and loading of a hanger hook through the loop element from either end. The opposite ends of the loop element can be angled inwardly towards each other proceeding in a downward direction.
In another embodiment, the loop element is integrally molded with and is the same width as the supporting flange.
In another embodiment, the loop element is attached to the bottom flange member by an elongated attachment web. In some embodiments the elongated attachment web can have a vertical length substantially longer than the height of the loop element.
The cross sectional shape of the passageway defined by the hook receiving loop element can have a variety of different shapes other than the rounded rectangular shape described above. It can taper from a wider width at the top thereof to a narrower width at the bottom, or taper from a narrower width at the top thereof to a wider width at the bottom, or can be substantially circular. In one embodiment, the cross sectional shape of the passageway defined by the hook receiving loop element tapers from a wider width at the top portion to a narrower width at the bottom portion. The width of a transition junction between the top portion and the bottom portion is slightly narrower than the width of the bottom portion to define an hourglass shape. The width at the transition junction can be slightly narrower than the width of a hanger hook, such that a hanger hook inserted and loaded through the top portion must be forcibly pushed and snapped through the junction, which provides a very secure retention of the hanger hook in the bottom portion
The present invention is also directed to a mold and a method of molding a plastic garment hanger body having a hook receiving loop element depending therefrom, and also to the mold for molding the molded plastic hanger body. The mold is comprised of first and second mold halves which include cavities which define the mold shape of the hanger body. The mold further comprises a moveable mold piece which is inserted into the mold shape of the loop element of the plastic hanger body during a molding operation to define and mold the interior shape of the passageway. The moveable mold piece is subsequently withdrawn from the passageway defined thereby to allow the plastic hanger body to be released from the mold.
In greater detail, the moveable mold piece is automatically inserted into the mold shape of the loop element when the mold halves are closed, and is automatically withdrawn from the mold shape of the loop element when the mold halves are opened. The moveable mold piece is pivotally supported about a pivot pin on the first mold half. The interior shape of the passageway through the loop element is defined by the cross sectional shape of a projecting end of the movable mold piece, which has an outer radius R1 and an inner radius R2, such that the top of the passageway curves with a radius R1 along the length of the passageway, the bottom of the passageway curves with a radius R2 along the length of the passageway, and R1 greater than R2. The second mold half supports a cam element which pivotally moves moveable mold piece as the first and second mold halves are opened and closed relative to each other. The cam element comprises a cam pin which extends through an aperture in the moveable mold piece, and also extends through an aperture in the first mold half. The cam pin is angularly supported and positioned relative to the direction of closing and opening of the first and second mold halves to cause the moveable mold piece to pivot into and out of the mold shape of the loop element.